In Memoriam

POW helps to tell the story…

Several years ago Mrs. Marjorie Garner contacted us and asked for any help that we could give in helping her to find out what happened to her husband, Ernest Parker of the Royal Corps of Signals, who had died as a POW on Taiwan. It took more than a year but we finally established that he was at Taichu Camp and then was moved to Heito after Taichu was flooded in June 1944. He died at Heito in September 1944.
When we first found out that Ernest had been at Taichu camp I studied his story further, and I wondered how it was that he came to be at Taichu Camp in the first place. He was in the Royal Corps of Signals and pretty well all of the RCS men who came to Taiwan were sent to Taihoku Camp # 6. Then from there many were sent to Kinkaseki, a few went to Heito and Shirakawa, but I had never heard of any being sent to Taichu.
I have just kept wondering all this time and hoping that maybe someday and in some way I would find out how he got there. Well just before leaving for our annual holiday in Canada at the end of June, I was contacted by Mr. Frank Ashby, a former Taiwan POW with an incredible memory. He had not heard of us or the work we’re doing up until then, but when he did, he wrote to us right away.
It turns out that he too was in the Royal Corps of Signals – and in that same group that was sent to Taihoku Camp # 6 off the England Maru in November 1942. He mentioned that later - on November 11, 1943, he and a party of 50 men left Taihoku Camp # 6 for Taichu Camp – and that they were mostly all Royal Corps of Signals men.
I firmly believe that Ernest was also moved to Taichu on November 11, 1943, although Frank did not know him personally. He said that he did not know several of the men - including Ernest, because they were in the 9th Indian Division Signals while he was in the 11th.
From here the story continues the same as before. Ernest was likely put to work in the river bed, clearing the flood diversion channel and then when the camp was flooded in June 1944, he and the other more “fit” men were moved to Heito. It is quite likely due to overwork at Taichu, and also the possibility that he contracted malaria at Heito, which caused his death in September of that year.
So in addition to what we knew before, we also now know that he came to Taiwan from Singapore on the England Maru in November 1942 and was sent in the first draft of POWs to Taihoku Camp # 6 before later being moved to Taichu Camp. This appears to be “the rest of the story” as they say. Sometimes these things take a lot of time but gradually we are putting the pieces of the Taiwan POWs’ story together.
I am very grateful that Frank wrote to us. Since his first letter he has shared so much information with me and also donated several items to our collection. Pictured below is the wooden “Bento (lunch) Box” that he used while working at Taihoku and Taichu Camps.